Meir Ettinger, 19, a resident of the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar and grandson of late Rabbi Kahane, says goal of Hebrew Labor project is ‘to warn the public’ against buying from businesses that employ Arabs.

About 10 days ago, a fish merchant in Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda outdoor market noticed a young man with sidelocks and a skullcap trying to determine which of the stalls employ Arabs. The merchant, Saleh, called the police, who detained the man for questioning on suspicion that he was planning a terror attack.

But the interrogation revealed that Meir Ettinger, 19, had a completely different goal in mind. Ettinger, a resident of the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar and a grandson of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, said he was investigating on behalf of a project called Hebrew Labor, whose goal is “to warn the public” against buying from businesses that employ Arabs. (Read more)

The Israeli cabinet decided on Monday to continue withholding $100 million in tax revenues owed to the Palestinian Authority, which it was to have received two weeks ago. An official said, despite warnings from Israel’s Defense Ministry that the measure could threaten the stability of the Palestinian government in the West Bank.

Israel stopped transfer of tax funds as punishment for the Palestinian’s successful bid for admission to the United Nations’ cultural agency UNESCO, which was part of a larger effort to gain admission as a state in the world body. (Read more)

Israel carried out a de facto annexation of Palestinian land northeast of the Jordan Valley and given it to Kibbutz Merav. Merav, part of the Religious Kibbutz Movement, is about seven kilometers northwest of the parcel.

The route of the separation barrier in the area was changed so that the plot in question, about 1,500 dunams (375 acres), would be on the Israeli side. (Read more)

Israel last night announced that it would accelerate settlement construction and withhold tax revenues from the Palestinian Authority to punish it for joining the UN’s cultural arm.

enjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, convened his inner cabinet yesterday to study proposals to sanction the Palestinian leadership after it won overwhelming international support on Monday for its bid to join UNESCO.

While some kind of punitive action was expected, the severity of Israel’s response suggested that Mr Netanyahu had bowed to pressure from right-wing ministers intent on exacting the heaviest penalty possible for what they saw as an act of Palestinian effrontery.

An Israeli government official defended the measures, saying that Mr Netanyahu had been left with no choice but to respond robustly to Palestinian “unilateralism” in its pursuit of UN membership and by what he claimed was the growing radicalism of Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority. (Read more)

The photovoltaic central Emnaizel, a West Bank village south of Hebron, is brand new. It was built in 2009 at a cost of 292,000 euros, provided by the Spanish International Cooperation Agency, and provides electricity to 40 families of Emnaizel, a school and a medical center. The Israeli army has announced that the plant will be demolished within a week, with two houses, for lack of building permit.

. . . .

The Israeli NGO Rabbis for Human Rights has taken legal defense Emnaizel families in the case of the power plant and has called for the suspension of burofax demolition process. The Israeli Civil Authority, however, is on holiday until 19 for parties of “Sukkot”, which drastically reduces the leeway for lawyers. Yesterday was impossible to contact a spokesman for the Civil Authority. (Read more)

Dozens of Jewish settlers surrounded an IDF patrol vehicle on Wednesday evening near the Shilo settlement, setting up roadblocks and physically assaulting IDF soldiers.

The incident began after rumors circulated that the Gal Yosef illegal outpost is about to be evacuated. At approximately 9 P.M. the settlers erected roadblocks and blocked the entrance to the outpost with their cars.

An IDF patrol vehicle that arrived on the scene was blocked by settlers. The soldiers tried to turn back, but were stopped by more roadblocks.

The vehicle was then surrounded by a few dozen youth from nearby settlements. When the soldiers asked them to let the vehicle pass, one of the soldiers was punched in the face, prompting a violent clash between the two sides. Soldiers who were called to the scene were able to detain one of the attackers, but he managed to escape. (Read more)

A mosque in an Arab village in the Galilee, northern Israel, was set on fire in the early hours of Monday morning in what police said was an arson attack, and its walls were defaced with Hebrew graffiti. The perpetrators were widely suspected of being Jewish extremists.

The fire caused “serious damage” to the mosque in the village of Tuba-Zangariya, according to Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman.

Later Monday, about 200 villagers began to march from the village along the main road toward Rosh Pina, a Jewish town. Mr. Rosenfeld said the police used tear gas to disperse the protesters after some threw stones at police officers and burned tires on the road.

There have been a number of similar arson attacks on mosques in West Bank villages in recent months, part of a campaign known as “price tag” in which radical settlers exact a price from local Palestinians or from the Israeli security forces for any action taken against their settlement enterprise. (Read more)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet on Sunday approved a plan to relocate tens of thousands of Bedouin from their unrecognized villages into settlements with official state status.

The plan emerges from the Prawer Report, drafted to find a solution to the problem of unrecognized villages in the Negev.

As part of the plan, some 20,000 to 30,000 Bedouon will be relocated to recognized settlements including Rahat, Khura and Ksayfe. The plan also includes financial compensation for those relocated, as well as alternate plots of land. The program is estimated to cost the state NIS 6.8 billion.

Opponents of the plan have accusing the government of evacuating people from their homes for no justified reason and against their will.

Bedouin representative called the decision “a declaration of war,” and some 150 members of the community gathered outside the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem on Sunday to protest the decision.

“This stupid government will be responsible for a Bedouin Intifada in the Negev,” said Arab MK Taleb al-Sana, who took part in the protest. (Read more)

Israel announced plans on Tuesday for 1,100 new housing units in an area of South Jerusalem outside Israel’s pre-1967 boundaries. The move reflects Israel’s continued rejection of Palestinian demands for a halt in settlement construction as a condition for peace talks. (Read more)

Several months ago, a religious school in the illegal Israeli settlement of Immanuel was criticized for segregating white Jewish students from non-white Jewish students in classes.

Originally, the school was fined for this policy of racial segregation, because the school was state funded. Now, the Israeli education ministry has agreed with the white parents’ request to allow the school to continue with its racial discrimination under private funding. (Read more)

From article:

Across the 19 countries surveyed, 49% backed the proposal while 21% said their government should oppose it.

The Palestinians say they will ask for full membership at the UN this week but the US says it will veto the move.

. . . .

The Palestinians are seeking international recognition of their state based on 1967 borders – the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.

. . . .

The United States and the Philippines both polled 36% against the resolution. But 45% of Americans and 56% of Filipinos backed recognition.

The lowest level of support was in India, with 32% in favour and 25% opposed, with many undecided.

Support was strongest in Egypt, where 90% were in favour and only 9% opposed.

In other Muslim countries, Turkey recorded 60% support, 19% opposition; Pakistan 52% for, 12 against; and Indonesia 51% for, 16% against.

Chinese were among the most enthusiastic supporters, with 56% in favour and just 9% opposed.

Public opinion in the three large European Union member states included in the poll was strikingly similar on the issue: France (54% support, 20% opposition), Germany (53% v 28%) and the UK (53% v 26%).

Overall, 30% opted for not giving a definite answer as they thought their country should abstain, or “it depends”, or they did not offer a view.

But more than half of Russians and Chileans did not offer a definite opinion.

A total of 20,466 people in 19 countries were interviewed, either face-to-face or by telephone between 3 July and 29 August this year. The margin of error ranges from + or – 2.1% to 3.5%.

So why the hell choose this headline:

BBC poll shows narrow support for Palestinian state

Just kidding, here’s the actual heading: ‘Settlers vandalize, set fire to West Bank mosque’

Palestinians, Rabbis for Human Rights report mosque near Nablus vandalized in apparent “price tag” attack following Migron demolitions.

Settlers set fire to a mosque south of Nablus early Monday morning, in an apparent “price tag” attack following the earlier demolition of three homes in the Migron outpost, the Ma’an news agency quoted Palestinian sources as saying.

Ma’an quoted the sources as saying the settlers stormed the mosque in the West Bank village of Qusara, smashing glass and setting fire to a number of tires within the mosque.

Rabbis for Human Rights corroborated the report, saying that the building was also vandalized with graffiti and the fire damaged the first floor of the structure in which the mosque is housed, but did not destroy it.

The organization also speculated that the arson incident was a “price tag” attack in retribution for the demolition at Migron. “Price tag” is a phrase right-wing settlers have adopted to signal retribution for any Israeli moves against settlement-outposts built without government authorization. (Read more from jpost.com)

‘Settlers vandalize, set fire to West Bank mosque’

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=236709